Episode 4 — Trust Services Criteria at a Glance
The Trust Services Criteria (TSC) form the backbone of every SOC 2 report, defining the control objectives used to evaluate a system’s reliability. The five criteria—Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy—can be selectively included depending on customer needs. Security, also called Common Criteria, is mandatory and underpins the others. Each criterion aligns with specific principles: for example, Availability relates to uptime and disaster recovery, while Privacy governs personal data collection and use. The exam expects familiarity with these distinctions and their interdependencies.
In applied contexts, organizations map existing policies and controls to TSC categories to identify coverage gaps. Security might align with IAM and incident response, while Confidentiality links to encryption and data classification programs. Understanding overlaps—such as how patch management supports both Security and Availability—helps create efficient control sets. The TSC are not technical controls themselves but conceptual anchors for evidence and testing. In professional settings, mastering this mapping is key to both audit preparation and cross-framework alignment. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.
